Here’s wishing Philip a retirement fit for a prince

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Prince Philip will be stepping down from carrying out royal engagements (AP)

As His Royal Highness Prince Philip will, in future, only be doing voluntary work, (Buckingham Palace announces Duke of Edinburgh standing down from public life, 4 May), will the tax payers funding of the royal household be adjusted accordingly?

Tony Harris

Stockton-on-Tees

Dame de Fer

Sunday could mark France’s Dangerous Liaison with Marine Le Pen, its first Empress since Josephine.

France’s Dame de Fer is on the rise, along with the politics of intolerance and isolationism fired up by the Islamist terrorist acts that have assaulted the modern French Republic at its very heart over the last two years. Le Pen’s aggressive brand of conservatism chimes with the same anti-establishment politics that put Trump in the White House.

The youthful Macron’s eyes may be of the baby bluest hue, but his politics and economics are rooted in the same failed socialism of Hollande. For that reason, we could be witnessing another French Revolution on Sunday night.

Anthony Rodriguez

Middlesex

Scrapping local elections

In more than fifty years of local and national elections, today is the first time I have seriously considered not voting. I have received no communication from any of the candidates and a web search was so frustrating that I gave up.

If we have reached the stage where candidates expect you to vote only according to party allegiance, we might as well scrap local elections altogether.

Trevor Gosland

Somerset

Brexit is above party politics

I find it extraordinary that we find ourselves fighting a civil war, sorry general election, as we start the most important negotiations, Brexit, for generations.

I am a Remainer and non-Tory supporter, but I am disappointed that opposition parties are lining up to do the EU’s dirty work in trying to undermine Theresa May.

Brexit will define the UK for generations. It may even define the extent of the UK! It should now be above party politics and we have no option but to unite to ensure the UK negotiates from a position of strength. The Tories must themselves, having gotten us into this mess, set an example and unite behind May on Brexit.

Surely what we need, after the general election, is a Parliament united on Brexit, doing the best they can to agree a fair divorce from the EU. I won’t hold my breath!

Tony McMahon

West Sussex

In the shadows

The recent news of Isis launching its own social media platform shows how the face of war is changing. To quote Dame Judi Dench in Skyfall, “our enemies are no longer known to us. They do not exist on a map, they aren’t nations. They are individuals…it’s in the shadows – that’s where we must do battle”.

This statement is as true as ever with the events going on in the world currently. And with the rapid rate of technological development today, things look like they surely can only get more difficult for our nation to defend. The battles of yesterday were fought in the trenches; the battles today are fought online and behind screens.

So I ask you, how will the battles of tomorrow be fought?

Archie Peters

Newcastle upon Tyne